Her attacker is serving 34½ years in jail, but Ruth Maxwell had to fight for support. Why?

It is 'fantastic' that Slawomir Gierlowski will spend decades in jail, but Ruth Maxwell says she and other survivors find themselves fighting all the time for everything in a dysfunctional system

'He had cable ties, duct tape, the knife — I was not meant to survive that,' Ruth Maxwell says of her horror attack in 2016. Picture: Bob Morrison

There were times when Ruth Maxwell felt that radio, and the music played on it, was her only comfort. Specifically, the sounds aired on RTÉ’s Late Date by occasional presenter Fiachna Ó Braonáin.

“I used to curl up in a ball in my bed crying listening to Fiachna,” Ruth says. “If I was feeling hopeless Fiachna knew that The Dark Side of The Moon was the only album that could help me.”